Singles Collection Vol. 3

Singles Collection Vol. 4

Live Magic

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Album Details

Live Magic
By Greg Brooks and Gary Taylor
Live Magic, Queen’s second live album, was recorded at Wembley Stadium and Knebworth Park in England, and in Budapest Hungary, during the Magic Tour of Europe, in July and August 1986.
Produced by the band and their long time sound engineer Trip Khalaf, and engineered by John Brough, the album was released on December 1st 1986 and entered the UK charts at No.3. It achieved platinum sales status and made a significant impact for a live album, selling over 400,000 copies with no accompanying single to promote it.
The front cover was conceived by Queen and comprised a photographic montage of the band taken at various shows on the tour, while the inner gatefold image shows the band’s helicopter approaching the grounds of Knebworth Park, the scene of what was to become the final concert – though no one knew it at the time.
The Knebworth concert was a late addition to the Magic tour, following unparalleled demand for tickets for gigs at Manchester and Newcastle, and two nights at Wembley in London, which had left thousands of British fans disappointed.
Certain songs were conspicuously absent from the album, such as Now I’m Here and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and those that were included were edited in order to fit onto a single album. Live Magic’s 1979 predecessor Live Killers had been a double album, but this time the band wanted only a single disc and thus the necessity to abbreviate certain performances. Some fans were unimpressed by the shortened edits and would have preferred a double disc set to better represent what many of them considered to be some of the best concerts Queen ever played. Although certain tracks, like A Kind Of Magic, Another One Bites The Dust and Hammer To Fall, had been heavily abridged to fit the vinyl version, the full recitals were reinstated for the CD version, while the entire opera section in Bohemian Rhapsody was cut from both!
Live Magic was not issued in America at the time, but instead emerged a decade later in 1996, following Hollywood records’ purchase of the entire Queen back catalogue.
The 26-date Magic Tour kicked off in Stockholm Sweden on June 7th 1986 and culminated with Queen’s final performance as a live act, with Freddie Mercury, at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire England, on August 9th. The tour took the band to Sweden, Holland, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, England, Austria, and for the first time since 1979, Spain too, for three memorable shows.
The show begins with the intro part of One Vision, and while the immense stage is engulfed by smoke, and the largest lighting rig Queen ever employed reveals the stage, the band run on and thrash out the opening chords of this much loved and rather dramatic Live Aid-inspired favourite. One Vision on this album comes from the Knebworth gig, as does the majority of the content (only four songs were lifted from other shows), and finds Queen performing before the largest paying audience ever amassed in the UK. 120,000 fans congregated on the grounds of the park for what is generally referred to as 'A Night Of Summer Magic'.
Tie Your Mother Down follows One Vision, with its familiar Brian May riffs and heavy rock flavour, and then straight into a brief rendition of Freddie’s Seven Seas Of Rhye from 1974. Roger’s A Kind Of Magic comes next, and then the 1981 No 1 Queen/Bowie collaboration Under Pressure follows, both recorded at the Budapest Show. John Deacon’s international monster hit Another One Bites The Dust, follows, featuring more Freddie interplay with the crowd, and John’s other song in the set, I Want To Break Free, comes next.
The show slows to a calmer pace with the poignant Is This The World We Created, with Brian on acoustic guitar sat next to Freddie, while the other half of Queen leaves the stage. This comes from the first of the two Wembley shows. Next up is Bohemian Rhapsody, part of Queen’s live set (in one form or other) since its conception in 1975, and of course one of several songs to remain in show until the very last performance.
The ever popular Rhapsody is followed by Hammer To Fall, recorded on the second night at Wembley, and this features additional guitar by Spike Edney – who also plays keyboards throughout this tour, as he done previously in 1984 and 1985, and at Live Aid.
The album ends in similar way to most of Queen’s latter shows, with a string of the band’s best loved and biggest known anthems. Radio Ga Ga sees the audience participating in the synchronised (above heads) handclapping spectacle, and then, all too soon, We Will Rock You rings out and then Friends Will Be Friends and We Are The Champions, with the masses waving and singing along with Freddie until his final words of the evening, “We love You.” The gigantic audience cheers for the last time as Champions closes and God Save The Queen begins, the band leaves the stage together quite literally for the last time, and another show and tour is over.
The Magic Tour of Europe was Queen’s most successful ever, generating in excess of 11 million pounds and playing to over one million people. The UK leg was, at the time, the largest grossing tour in the history of British rock music, setting an all time attendance record and outselling previous tours by Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones.
At the end of 1986, EMI released every one of Queen’s albums on compact disc, and making them the first band to have their entire back catalogue made available on CD.
Producers: Queen and Trip Khalaf
Engineer: John ‘Teddy Bear’ Brough
Recording Studios: Various European venues on the 1986 Magic Tour
Date Recorded: July – August 1986
Additional Musicians: Spike Edney (Additional keyboards, guitar and vocals)
Artwork Concept: Queen
Award Status: Platinum (UK)

Did You Know?

1. Queen’s second live album was recorded during the band's summer Magic European tour.
2. The album sold a remarkable 400,000 copies on release, despite having no single released to promote it.
3. This was Queen’s second album to be released in one calendar year (1986) – the first time this had happened since 1974 with Queen II and Sheer Heart Attack.
4. Extended versions of some songs including Hammer To Fall and A Kind Of Magic appeared on CD release.
5. Live Magic was first of two officially released live albums from the same tour, the other was to be the expanded Live At Wembley ‘86’ album in 1992.

Track Listing

Lyrics

5. Under Pressure

"This is under pressure"
Um bum ba ba, um bum ba be, um bum bum ba da doo ba
Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you, no man ask for
Under pressure, that burns a building down
Splits a family in two, puts people on streets
Ba ba be, um ba ba be, ee day da, ee day da - that's okay
It's the terror of knowing what the world is about
Watching some good friends screaming - let me out
Pray tomorrow - gets me higher
Pressure on people, people on streets
Day day de, da da da de de, okay
Chippin' around - kick my brains round the floor
These are the days - it never rains but it pours
Ee do da de, ed do do bo bap, ee do dop, de lap
People on streets - ee da de da de
People on streets - ee da de da de da de
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends screaming - let me out
Pray tomorrow - higher high - oh yeah
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love but it's so slashed and torn
Why - why - Oh
Insanity laughs under pressure - we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love, give love, give love,
Give love, give love, give love, give love, give love
Coz love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance, this is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure, under pressure, pressure

6. Another One Bites The Dust

"Okay. This next song calls for a boogie. I mean - so - another one bites the dust - hey"
Hey, Steve walks warily down the street
With his brim pulled way down low
Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet
Machine guns ready to go
Are you ready, hey, are you ready for this
Are you standin' on the edge of your seat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat - yeah
"Yeah yeah sing it - thank you - and again"
hey, and another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, gonna get you too, another one bites the dust
"I told you I was going to"
How do you think I'm going to get along
Without you when you're gone
You took me for everything that I had
And kicked me out on my own
Are you happy, are you satisfied
How long can you stand the heat
Out of the doorway the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat
Yeah yeah yeah, yeah do it for me
Hey, and another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too, another one bites the dust
Ee dop bop be bop bop be da de bop bop da de
Ee dop bop ba de bop
Ee dop bop de dop dop day - woh
Another one bites the dust - yeah
Another one bites the dust - yeah yeah
Yeah yeah - ye yeah yeah
Another one bites the dust - yeah
Another one bites the dust - yeah
Bites the dust, bites the dust, yeah yeah, ye yeah yeah
Bites the dust, bites the dust, bites the dust
Bites the dust, hey - woh - yeah
Another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust - yeah
Another one bites the dust, another one bites the dust - yeah yeah Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Plenty of ways you can hurt a man
And bring him to the ground
You can beat him, you can cheat him
You can treat him bad, and leave him when he's down, yeah
But I'm ready, yes ready for you
I'm standing on my own two feet
Out of the doorway the bullets repeat
To the sound of the beat
Yeah yeah yeah yeah, another one bites the dust
Hey, and another one gone and another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too, another one bites the dust
Woh yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah
"This is an enormous place. It looks beautiful from up here let me tell you - ha. It's frightening I tell you. It looks beautiful"
Dee de da de da day do, de day da de da de do
Da day do, da day day do, day do, de day do
De day de day da day do, ee day de de day day do
Ee day do, ee day do, ee daaaay do, de day do
Day dop, de da day de da day de da day de da day dop
"Fuck off - they're good I tell you"

7. I Want To Break Free

I want to break free, I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied, I don't need you
I want to break free, hey
God knows, God knows I want to break free
I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
This time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love yeah
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love
It's strange but it's true, yeah
I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure when I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh how I want to break free
But life still goes on
I can't get used to living without, living without
Living without you - by my side
I don't want to live alone, yeah
God knows, got to make it on my own
So baby can't you see yeah
God knows I want to, God knows I want to
God knows I want to break free, yeah

8. Is This The World We Created?

Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need
Is this the world we created, we made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated, right to the bone
If there's a God up in the sky - looking down
What must He think of what we've done
To the world that He created

11. Radio Ga Ga

I'd sit alone and watch your light
My only friend through teenage nights
And everything I had to know
I heard it on my radio (radio)
You gave them all those all time stars
Through wars of worlds, invaded by Mars
You made em laugh, you made em cry
You made us feel like we could fly (radio)
So don't become some background noise
A back drop for the girls and boys
Who just don't know or just don't care
And just complain when you're not there
You've had your time, you had the power
you've yet to have your finest hour - radio (radio)
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio blah blah
Radio what's new, radio - someone still loves you
We watched the shows, we watched the stars
On videos, for hours and hours
We hardly need to use our ears
How music changes through the years (radio)
Let's hope you never leave old friend
Like all good things, on you we depend
So stick around coz we might miss you
When we grow tired of all this visual
You've had your time, you had the power
You've yet to have your finest hour - radio (radio)
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio goo goo, radio ga ga
All we hear is radio ga ga, radio blah blah
Radio what's new, radio - someone still loves you - loves you

14. We Are The Champions

I've paid my dues, time after time
I've done my sentence, but committed no crime
And bad mistakes, I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face
But I've come through
On and on and on and on
We are the champions my friend
We'll keep on fighting till the end
Oh we are the champions, we are the champions
No time for losers, coz we are the champions of the world
We are the champions my friends
We'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions, we are the champions
No time for losers, coz we are the champions of the world.